Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Troglo-Review: "Zombieland" on DVD

ZOMBIELAND is here!

But should you buy it, and can the kids watch it?

I purchased the Bestbuy special edition, which included a bonus disk, for $24.99. While I greatly enjoyed the bonus content, it didn't seem worth the extra $7. And, the movie disk has something wrong with it, as there are several parts in the movie where the sound cuts out for a second or more.

But what about the movie?

The first time I saw this movie at the theater, it was fantastic. I laughed my ass off. My pals also laughed- one so hard I think he ruptured my ear drum.

First and foremost, this movie is a comedy. True, it's set in a post-Zombie Apocalypse world, but the basic intent of the movie is the buddy story. The buddy's being super-nerd, ultra-paranoid Columbus, and ass-kicking, red neck, nascar fan Tallahassee. They are truly an odd couple.

Think Tremors, Lake Placid, Army of Darkness, Undead and Shaun of the Dead, and you get the basic idea: horror with comedy. In Zombieland's case, it's more humor than horror, but there's plenty of both.

Can you watch this with your kids?

Well... that's debatable. First off, it's very gorey. Dark humor, over-gorey, I think. I mean, surely it's intended to be funny just how gorey parts are. I laughed. But can your kids handle watching zombies chew pieces off victims? Can they handle watching a zombie pull a bone from a corpse, crack it open and suck the marrow out?

Then there's the adult-humor. The opening title sequence shows a zombie stripper, boobies swinging too and fro in super-slo mo as she chases a strip club patron- the title sequence tells the story of what happened when the Zombie outbreak occured. But filmed with superfast cameras and slowed down, like a dark episode of Time Warp or a segment from Myhtbusters. I surely have nothing against a nice set of jugs, but these are covered in fake blood. The enjoyment is kind of lost. And do your kids even know what a stripper is? There's absolutely nothing sexual about this scene.

However, there is plenty of sexual talk in the movie. Columbus is grilled by Tallahassee about the last time he had sex- and Tallahassee asks several different ways before finally asking the dense Columbus- "sex". Columbus then lies and mentions where he did the deed. Good possibility here that kids might not understand the dialogue. Then again, they might.

Next up, Tallahassee, very in-character, later uses the word "masturbate" a few times in the film. Again, do your kids know what that is? Will they ask? Can you lie past it or shush them to avoid an embarrassing, mid-movie discussion of the birds and the bees?

Finally, Tallahasse at one point asks Columbus if he wants to "fuck" one of the female leads- "Wichita". Now, my kids have seen countless action movies where people talk about "fucking" someone up, so I wasn't worried by this. Until Tallahassee followed his question up by declaring it would only be fair as the girls had been fucking them- in this case, clearly referring to how the girls had conned and stolen from Columbus and his zombie-slaying partner. Possibly you could lie to your kids and claim Tallahassee was thought Columbus wanted to hurt Wichita, but I think they'd see through that. Then you'd have to stare at them blankly and play dumb. "What do you mean?"

Is Zombieland kid-friendly. Probably not. More so than Shaun of the Dead, less so than Army of Darkness.

Should you buy Zombieland? Hell, yes. It's an awesome movie with laughs, action and almost no boring parts. Yes, after a dozen viewings, you may be tempted to fast forward through a few bits of dialogue, but then again, the dialogue's pretty damned good in this movie. Right up there with Big Trouble in Little China.